I don’t recall ever seeing a vowel progression that included the Y, so that’s a nice touch in an otherwise standard theme.

What’s notable here are the good-sized corners filled with 6s and 8s. I especially like ROOTLETS because it sounds like a kids cover band.

Not a big fan of AA CELLS because (1) it’s somewhat random and (2) who ever says that?

But otherwise everything else felt solid, and the clues felt fresh and interesting.

Steven L Zisser’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up

LAT • 5/8/17 • Mon • Zisser • solution

A counting sequence.

17a. [Mega-mall convenience] ONE-STOP SHOPPING.

25a. [Small-time bad guy] TWO-BIT GANGSTER.

42a. [Office attire with a vest] THREE-PIECE SUIT.

56a. [Barbershop quartet blend] FOUR-PART HARMONY.

Two fifteens, two fourteens.

An added stipulation is that these opening numbers are all hyphenates. I appreciate that sort of rigor in a theme. Would have been even spiffier if all four clues also began with hyphenated constructions; as it is, just the first two do so, which toyed with my expectations.

While KITTY is indisputably an acceptable term to refer to a poker pot, I do not think I have ever heard it used in a poker game in which I have played. I would not hesitate to use it in a game like MICHIGAN RUMMY, where the pot for certain cards and sequences can accumulate over a series of deals.

STACKS is a term that refers generally to the number of chips any given player has in front of him. So and so is the BIG STACK; Steve is SHORT-STACKED. In the center of the pot, chips are never stacked in hold’em, but they are always stacked in hi-lo games like 8 or better hi-lo stud and Omaha hi-l0. The reason for this is that there is usually a single winner of a hold’em pot and the chips are pushed over to him, while the hi-lo split pot games progress faster as stacking them makes it easier to split the pot.

In the BEQ: I thought cluing Arab through Fertile Crescent was a bit of a stretch. Fertile Crescent was Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq, north of the Arabian peninsula. I mean, it overlaps Arabia a little, but the geography nerd in me was a bit thrown.